Nirbhaya fund stays with finance ministry

Putting an end to the tussle between different ministries over handling of the Nirbahaya fund, the finance ministry has decided that it will directly administer the Rs 1,000-crore corpus.

Putting an end to the tussle between different ministries over handling of the Nirbahaya fund, the finance ministry has decided that it will directly administer the Rs 1,000-crore corpus.

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The fund aimed to bolster women’s safety and security was announced in the 2013-14 general budget, after the public outrage over the brutal gang rape of a 23-year-old girl in the Capital last December.

But for more than four months, the Centre could not decide how the corpus would be used or who will administer it even as different ministries including Women & Child Development (WCD) and Home were jockeying to stake claim.

The breather came last week, when Namo Narain Meena, minister of state for finance wrote to WCD minister Krishna Tirath that it has been decided “with the approval of finance minister that the Nirbhaya Fund will be administered by ministry of finance.”

Meena, however, added that the Department of Economic Affairs will work with WCD, Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Electronics and Information Technology and other agencies to work out the structure, scope and application of the fund.

The move comes a month after the WCD ministry set up a 20-member task force to recommend specific schemes under the corpus. The panel was expected to give its report by June end. Ministry officials are now unsure about the fate of the panel which was expected to submit its report by June end.

In March, WCD minister Krishna Tirath had also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that since WCD is the nodal ministry mandated to frame policies for women’s empowerment it should be given the responsibility to administer the fund. The home ministry has also staked claim to manage the funds on the ground that safety and security is its domain.